Wednesday, November 8, 2023
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
With Thanksgiving - Even On the Hard Days
It is hard to remember to be grateful on the days when our current circumstances feel so intolerable. Anxiety can eat us up and steal our peace. The church in Philippi must have been struggling since Paul spoke about it here in Philippians 4. We can take these words to heart and know that they will apply in our lives as well.
Be honest with God when you pray – When we pray, it is just us and Him, in intimate communion with one another. We can focus on Him and Who He is in our lives. We can surrender to Him with open hearts – every fear, worry, every petition, every heartache. He will take what we surrender and exchange it for His peace.
Read His promises – The Bible is full of God’s promises. We can fill our heads with His promises and truth, even about what we are going through. We can also play worship music to keep our mind on Him. These truths and promises will fill our minds and we can recall them more easily when we are in the middle of a hard day.
Preach it to yourself– tell yourself – out loud – what His promises are and the truth that is in His word. Satan loves to whisper in our ear. He loves it because if he can make us doubt the truth of God’s word or the certainty of His promises, we will not be effective for God’s kingdom. That is what Satan wants. He is the father of lies and he wants us to believe his lies about us. But when we know the truth, we have to tell it to ourselves when we don’t feel it. Sometimes on the hard days it is difficult to feel the truth we know.
I know when I don’t have peace in my heart that my focus is not on Him, but on my circumstances. My impossible circumstances will cause me anxiety because I know there is no possible way I can fix them. Focusing on myself, my circumstances and my own impossible ability to fix them will usher in all the anxious thoughts. It is when I get my focus back on Him where it belongs, and trust Him, that I will find peace in my heart. Even if I don’t think of all the blessings, He has given me and the faithfulness He has shown over and over in my life, He deserves thanksgiving just because of who He is. Just the very thought that He cares about me and listens to my prayers is worth all the thanks I can muster. He truly delights when we give Him sacrifices of praise on those very hard days.
God understands the hard days and He knows how hard it can be to offer our prayers with thanksgiving. He also knows that when we offer our prayers with thanksgiving something happens inside of us. He understands the unbearable circumstances and He understands the effect this kind of stress has on our human bodies. He understands our emotions and He loves us and cares about us and all our impossible circumstances. He is the only One who is capable of helping us through them and He will. He will be with us every step of the way. And if we trust in Him, He will give us peace beyond our understanding.
